DynV on 28/3/2009 at 10:29

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Well I went the reversed way, I played SS2 before SS1 and I found SS2 to be like no other game (a bit later I got as much immersed in Deus Ex which it's second version sucked !) but when I inquired about SS1 and discovered what it was for the technologies it was built on (DOS), I was astounded and like the OP, this is one of my top games although I probably played it in 2001 ; I was thoroughly impressed. As most novelties elements were already copied in the games I played before, I most probably was less impressed than if I would've played it fresh on the market. I'm very happy the game made it on (http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/july01/top502ase/index3.shtm) gamespy top 12 games of all times.

My favorite DOS game before that was Duke Nukem 3D but SS1 was incredibly more advanced and interesting ; sometimes I find myself the time could slow down, that I could've enjoyed a couple more years playing Duke Nukem 3D on modem recruiting on a local IRC room users in my area code as playing on the internet was just way too much overhead. :D I also did that for Quake 1 but that's another technology.

All thing considered, SS1 is my second best game of all I've known, topped only by The Elder Scrolls (TES) III : Morrowind Oh ! Now I feel so inspired to talk about it but this isn't the right place to talk about this ; (http://forums.uesp.net/viewtopic.php?p=158347#158347) this is :cheeky:

Nameless Voice on 29/3/2009 at 02:00

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System Shock 1 doesn't have multiplayer.

And playing System Shock 2 for the first time in multiplayer is a travesty.

steo on 30/3/2009 at 00:05

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Wow. So the other night I drank some wine and was looking at games on my computer to play, saw raptor: call of the shadow, tried to play it but I didn't have DOSbox installed. So I installed DOSbox, played it for twenty minutes and then got bored and thought of another, much better DOS game to play. Had a quick look for my System Shock CD, couldn't find it, got a torrent started for it which was pretty quick to finish. did some fiddling around trying to get it to work, installing VDMSound etc. got pissed off that I couldn't get it to work (I think I just needed to restart after installing VDMS). Came upon System Shock Portable. Started the torrent and then the direct download, which finished first. Finally got it installed and started playing, decided to go for plot and puzzle difficulty 3, cyber 1 and combat 2. Boy, did I have fun. After spending just over an hour on the first deck I realised I really had to pick up the pace but when the timer counted down to 4 hours remaining, I was still running around searching for the laser safety override keypad which I had been sure was in the same room as the fire button on level 2. Failing that I decided to stop wasting time and move upwards, through decks 3, 4 and 5, gathering equipment and solving whatever pieces of the quest that I could, though I still managed to the enviro-suit on storage.

Coming back down to the lower levels, I eventually found safety override and destroyed the mining laser. I was down to two and a bit hours for the executive level and this was when I really started to haul ass, skating from one end of the level to the other, "SHIT, I have to disengage the safety lock in beta grove before I can flip the master jettison switch... beta grove is going to be fun without an enviro-suit". I actually wasted far too many precious minutes wandering around level 6 previously because I missed the door which leads to the other quadrants and I was really thinking that I wouldn't have time to backtrack all around decks 1-6 to get the self-destruct code (since I wasn't abusing my prior knowledge), fight my way to the reactor core, set it to self-destruct, and fight my way through decks 7, 8 and 9.

When I got to deck 7 I had maybe 1:50 left and I was getting torn apart by the cyborg enforcers, I never even found the regenerator but somehow I managed to destroy all the antennae and was lucky enough to have a logic probe handy for when shodan traps you in with your own C4. Somehow I pulled it off - I made it to security with just under an hour and finished the game with 14 minutes to spare, 54 regenerations and 743 kills.

I'm fairly sure I've completed the game with the time limit before but then I would have been straight after completing it without the time limit. It's been a few years since my last SS run, so not knowing quite where everything is and not being so familiar with the way everything works made it all the more enjoyable. I'm now playing through it again, this time with all difficulties on 3. I'm really enjoying the tougher combat and I've just got to deck 5 with four and a half hours to spare.

So yes, system shock certainly does still have it after 15 years. After this run, I'll probably put it down and come back to it in another few years. It's amazing how it's able to grip me - I've started a game, finished it and started another one in the space of a weekend. The only other games I can think of that have done that are Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines and, to a lesser extent, Stalker: SoC.

Marecki on 30/3/2009 at 04:17

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Well, simply put SS is a GREAT game. In fact, I think I'll give it yet another go as soon as I've located my game-CD box in the post-moving pile... Maybe this time I'll finally manage to stop myself from exploring for long enough to beat the time limit - then again, given how many times I failed this before I wouldn't hold your breath :)

Matthew on 30/3/2009 at 15:21

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My mates and I did that for It Came From the Desert, each taking a couple of parts and narrating them for the edification and amusement of the others. Good times.